Just watched the ABC coverage of the 1969 Indy 500 on YouTube. I've always wondered if Mario's winning car was newly built with the wedge-ish side pods or was it an upgrade of the '68 car. I did some research on the Internet and searched this forum but can find little information.
Is there a good source for the history of the Brawner-built Indy cars? There apparently was a Brawner Hawk website at one time but it's gone.
What I have determined is that the original 1965 car that Mario drove in the 500 was copied from John Zink's wrecked 1964 Brabham-Offy. There were either two or three made with one going to Zinc and the other one (or two) being retained by Brawner. There is also a car that was named a Moore and I don't know if that was one of these or a different chassis. The car that Mario raced in 1965 appears to have also been raced in 1966. At some point it ended up racing at Oswego as a Modified with the original parts and chassis travelled different paths but the car has now been reassembled and restored, first with an new chassis and now with the original restored frame.
The car Mario drove in 1967 was a Brawner Hawk II and I believe it was driven by Larry Dickson in the 1968 500 (before Mario took over). Not sure what became of this one.
The car Mario drove in 1968 was a Brawner Hawk III and this same designation was also used for the 1969 winning car. The winning car is now in the Smithsonian and an unraced (?) replica is on display at the Speedway museum.
That, in a nutshell, is all I know. Can anyone add to this?